The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-10-12
President CIeyeIand,s Record
IGrand Army Gazette and National
Guardsman.

president CIevelanO7s Record
! CGrand Army Gazette and National
Guardsman.
The Gazette does not sympathize
with indlscriminate attacks made
upon the President of the United
States. While in that position he
represents before the world the
great American Republic, and his
honor and dignity should be as dear
Ito us as our own. That he has
made mistakes is probable, for he is
human, and that entails liability
to err But that he has erred will
fully and knowingly we do not be-
ilieve, and he has been charged with
many things which the facts do not
sustain.
For instance, it has been loudly
proclaimed that Mr. Cleveland is
hostile to the old soldiers, and has
lost no opportunity to oppose legiaa
llation in their behalf Let Us look
at the facts in the case and see If
this sweeping assertion is founded
on truth:
An investigation of the pension
Legislation for the past seventeen
years shows that General Grant,
from 1870 to 1877, inclusive, period
of eight years, approved 485 private
pension acts; President Hayes, from
1877 to 1881, inclusive, period of
four years, approved 3O3 private
pension acts; Presidents Garfield
and Arthur, from 1882 to 1885, in
elusive, a period of four years, ap-
proved 736 private pension acts;
while President Cleveland, from
1856 to 1887, inclusive, period of
only two years, has approved 863
private pension acts.
This is n more than Presidents
Grant and Hayes approved in II
4 years, and 127 more than Presi-
dents Garfield and Arthur approved
in years.
On the other hand the President
has vetoed 123 private pension bills
and the dependent pension bill. In
the former he undoubtedly acted in
conformity with his duty as it ap-
peared to him from the testimony
and documents submitted to him,
and his veto of the dependent pen
sion bill was shown to be in accord
with the preponderating sentiment,
not only of the country at large,
but of the veterans themselves.
But-there is other evidence of the
Presidents friendly attitude to-
! wards Union Soldiers. He has APP
pointed more veterans to Office than
any other President. To be sure,
!, ,l.semezeldss sseldisrsSand sailors of an
opposite political faith have been
removed from office, but the fact
: remains that more veterans are to-
day holding official positions under
the Government than at any pre-
vious portion of our history.
The president also approved the
bill increasing the pension of wild
ows, minors and dependent rela-
) tives; the act increasing in a large
: number of cases the pensions OF
! MANNED and crippled soldiers, and
the act giving pension to the sur
$ vivors of the war with Mexico, and
the widows of the deceased soldiers
who took part in that struggle.
In view of these facts, and of the
additional one, that never before,
in spite of the rapidly increasing
death rate, was there SO large a
number of pensioners upon the rolls
of the Pension Bureau as now, is it
not about time to call halt, and
ask the blatant demagogues who
are making these unfounded at
tacks to take back seat? In the
end those who make use of such
mendacious methods will surely
be the sufferers, for the American
people is too intelligent and too
fond of fair play to be long made
the victims of such barefaced de-
ception.
! His Memory Was Good.